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Feminism and Classics VI conference hosted at Brock in May 2012

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Feminism and Classics VI conference hosted at Brock in May 2012

Published on December 19 2010

The Department of Classics is pleased to host the sixth Feminism and Classics conference in May 2012, the first time this international conference will be held in Canada. The Call for Papers can be found below and available here as a pdf. The conference website will be launched in late January; in the meantime, please direct any questions to FCVI@brocku.ca

Feminism and Classics VI: Crossing Borders, Crossing Lines

Brock University,St Catharines, Ontario, CanadaMay 24-27, 2012

Ancient Mediterranean society was crisscrossed by multiple boundaries and borders. Firm boundaries between male and female, slave and free, gods and mortals (to name just a few) defined social identities and relationships, even as these lines were regularly crossed in religious ritual, social practices and artistic imagination. In current scholarship, Feminism is now Feminisms, encouraging multiple, and even transgressive, approaches to the study of women, gender, and sexuality in the ancient world. But has Feminism itself become a boundary, dividing fields of study or generations of scholars? Or is it a threshold, encouraging crossings between literary, historical and archaeological evidence? What new approaches are scholars using to push the boundaries of the evidence and the limits of our knowledge of the ancient world?

This conference will focus on boundaries, liminality, and transgression. What kinds of crossings did ancient people experience and what control did they have over such crossings? How did borders and border crossings differ in relation to gender, ethnicity, age, or legal status? If the masculine and feminine were clearly demarcated categories of being, how do we interpret homosexual, transvestite and gender-labile aspects of the ancient world? What points of contrast and connection exist between different types of gendered space (literal or metaphorical) and do they change when geographic or national boundaries are crossed?

We invite submissions for abstracts of papers and workshops that explore these and related themes, and encourage proposals from a variety of methodological and theoretical perspectives. Abstracts of 300 words can be submitted electronically (starting January 31, 2011) to the conference website: www.brocku.ca/conferences/feminism-classics-vi. Deadline for receipt of abstracts is June 30, 2011.

The Department of Classics at Brock University is pleased to host Feminism and Classics VI. Brock University is the only Canadian University to be located in a UNESCO International Biosphere Reserve. It is within an hour’s drive of Toronto, Ontario and Buffalo, NY, and thus easily accessible and close to major attractions, shopping and airports. The Niagara region is framed by Lake Ontario, Lake Erie and the Niagara River, and is in the heart of Ontario’s vineyard country, and visitors can enjoy the culinary and wine trail. More information about Brock University and its location can be found at http://www.brocku.ca/about/why